Writing Challenge Day 1 — 5 problems with Social Media

A budding writer posted a writing prompt challenge on Facebook a few days. Needing to get back in the habit of writing daily, I accepted the challenge.

A great writing challenge

As you can see Day 1 is “Five Problems with Social Media”. Now I could just list the problems, but that would make for a very short blog. So I’ll take it one step further and give a brief reason why I think the reason I give is a problem.

1. Too many trolls.

Reason: The internet is the new “playground” it’s full of bullies and trolls. Most of the time, there is no reason for an “and” between the words because they are one in the same. If they can’t get under your skin as a troll, then they will try to bully the hell out of you. I see this ALL the time on political threads on friends walls, religious threads, women’s health care threads. I’m not shocked that my friends have friends that have different opinions. I am shocked that the friends with different opinions feel that they can be rude and disrespectful on their friend’s walls.

2. Fake people

Reason: This one is easy. On the internet, you can be anyone. It’s been this way from the beginning of the internet and even before the WWW was available to everyone when it was just a bunch of bulletin boards systems like AOL. You can rarely be sure of who you are talking to, sometimes, even if you have met them in person. What seems like the sweetest person online may be like that the first couple of times you meet them. Then they get comfortable with you and they turn into something else. They could be a liar, a cheat, a user, married cheating on their spouse, or someone you simply don’t want in your life. Hell, they may not even look like the person in their picture. If it is a picture of them, it may be 10 years old. Or it may be a picture of their child. Who knows. Trust is hard earned on the net and easy to lose.

3. Shallow relationships.

Reason: No one takes the time to really get to know each other online. I’m guilty of this too. For example, I have 263 friends on Facebook and personally really know probably 60 of them. And that’s pushing it.

4. “If it’s posted on Facebook, it’s true” mentality.

This ties back to #2. Fake people, fake news, fake profiles, fake updates, fake pictures. But there are some people who will believe ever single thing that is posted. And those who will take creative liberties with the truth to get a point across.

5. Everyone is a genius.

This one is easy. Think about it. 90% of everyone on social media (FB, Twitter, Instagram. etc) is a subject matter expert at something. Some really are, some are learning to be, some just want to be.